U.S. Army Corps of Engineers USACE

The Continental Congress appointed a chief engineer for the army in 1775, and the Corps of Engineers was permanently established in 1802, when it also founded the military academy at West Point. In the nineteenth century Congress turned to the Corps to improve rivers and harbors, and it became the government's main builder of civil infrastructure. Today it has two missions: military construction for the Army and Air Force, and a large civil works program overseen by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works.

Its civil works program maintains the nation's navigation channels, harbors, and the locks and dams on inland waterways like the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, which carry much of the country's grain, coal, and fuel. It builds and operates flood control projects, including levees and reservoirs, generates hydropower, restores ecosystems such as the Florida Everglades, and runs hundreds of recreation areas. It also issues permits under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act for filling wetlands and other waters, jointly with the EPA.

The Corps is led by the Chief of Engineers, a three-star general, and employs tens of thousands of civilians. Congress authorizes its projects through Water Resources Development Acts, typically every two years, and funds them through the energy and water appropriations bill, which has long made its projects a channel for member priorities. The failure of Corps-built levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 led to major reforms in its engineering standards.